Being this is the musician's corner of the org, i'm curious what your opinions of the "NEWS" album are. From the standpoint of the compositions to his decision to go in this direction musically.

theAudience said:

I thought it was Madhouse Lite. Not as many risks as on Madhouse - and this is clearly a return to Madhouse - just P and Eric Leeds... but it didn't ever really capture the good stuff of Madhouse... but hey - I REALLY liked Madhouse 8. Didn't like 16.

nothing really stuck with me on this one. I thought it was high quality writing as usual but nothing that made my heart or soul melt. I am not impressed by long drawn out instrumentals with lots of changes. I like his earlier/hungrier works. Before he made it to Elvis-like proportions.
[This message was edited Fri Mar 5 19:20:09 2004 by talmuzic]

I actually dug it because of the compositional value of the CD as a whole...

It's some pretty deep thinking stuff musically within its various "Golden Moments"
throughout the entirety of the recording...

I can definitely listen to that one from start to finish all the way thru!





Jshua

I absolutely LOVE "North", such a beautiful composition! The rest is OK, but the album doesn't really grab me, if you know what I mean. I haven't played it in ages. I like the sound of the album though, a great recording!

Hanging with Frank: http://frankaxtell.com , I LOVE good long JAM sessions like this. From what I understand, that's what this album was. Long, 15 minute jams that revolved around whatever P was doing.

Afterward, Eric was invited over to lay some sex-a-phone over top of the initial recording.

I think the album should have also came with a DVD with the same sort of footage as the promo with the nature scenes and all. That sort of stuff, I'd have playing on the wide-screen playing kissy-poo with my wife!

It would have sold well in those funky smelling shops with the "earthy" calanders/prints/cards/coffe mugs/ herbal tea. I could see it right up on the shelf next to Enya and Pure Moods volume 9, along with a complementary copy of tantric massage 101.

oooh,
was that a dis?
I didn't mean for it to be. I actually dig NEWS.

I play it a lot, probably more than any other P album these days. I like the guitar playing.

I like it a bunch. It's really good to set a mood with your lova!!

otan said:

Very Very Lite

Well, for me NEWS is an album good to listen to. The band is tight, and there are some very nice funky moments.
But we are talking about Prince here. For me, Prince is one of the most talent musician/songwriters of the last 100 years. So, an album like NEWS is not the best of what he can do.
About the compositions.....I feel there is NO composition on the album. For me, NEWS is basically a jam album. No strong melodies.
I have some friends who are good jazz musicians, and they are always performing the ´standards´. It always bothered me that they play songs by several composers, but never a Prince tune. Listening to the standards closely, I noticed that they are really great compositions. Melodies like ´Autumn Leaves´, ´Caravan´ etc are indeed very strong. But NEWS has no strong melody. Only a bunch of connected grooves and riffs.
I was expecting a more challenging guitar playing too. We know that Prince can play some jazzy guitar when he wants to, but he simply didnt try it. And the distortion guitar solos aren´t ripping too.
About the musical direction.....I like the fact that Prince is more jazzy now. Jazz is the most rich kind of non-classical music. There are several possibilities there. But Prince didn´t explore them with NEWS.
Let´s see what the future brings...